Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

Almost done Memphis football indoor practice facility is tribute to perseverance | Giannotto

Ryan Silverfield saw the first piece of green turf go down last week, and then watched as the goalposts went up.

More than when the beams and walls that surround the 74,000-square foot structure were put into place, and more than when the 120-yard roof went over top of them, this was the moment when the Tigers’ new indoor practice facility no longer felt so far away for the new Memphis football coach.

After almost 20 years of talking about it, after a decade of trying to turn those dreams into reality, and after almost a year of construction, the next landmark in the rise of Memphis football is almost complete.

Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

Memphis head coach Ryan Silverfield waves to fans and thanks them as he walks off the field Saturday, Dec. 28, 2019, after loosing to Penn State 53-39 in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Max Gersh / The Commercial Appeal

Memphis head coach Ryan Silverfield talks to his team during a timeout Saturday, Dec. 28, 2019, during the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Max Gersh / The Commercial Appeal

Memphis head coach Ryan Silverfield (left) and Penn State head coach James Franklin shake hands for the media Friday, Dec. 27, 2019, during a coaches press conference at the Omni Hotel in Dallas. Max Gersh / The Commercial Appeal

Memphis Tigers new Head Football Coach Ryan Silverfield is introduced to the crowd during the basketball team’s game against Jackson State at the FedExForum on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019. Joe Rondone, Joe Rondone/The Commercial Appeal

Memphis football head coach Ryan Silverfield works with his players Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019, during a practice at University of Memphis' Billy J Murphy Athletic Complex. Max Gersh / The Commercial Appeal

Memphis Director of Athletics Laird Veatch presents Memphis head football coach Ryan Silverfield and his wife Mariana Sliverfield with a team jersey at the Billy J. Murphy Football Complex on Friday, Dec. 13, 2019.
Ariel Cobbert, The Commercial Appeal

Memphis head football coach Ryan Silverfield and his wife Mariana Sliverfield during a press conference at the Billy J. Murphy Football Complex on Friday, Dec. 13, 2019. Ariel Cobbert, The Commercial Appeal

Memphis head football coach Ryan Silverfield and his wife Mariana Sliverfield pose with a with team jersey at the Billy J. Murphy Football Complex on Friday, Dec. 13, 2019.
Ariel Cobbert, The Commercial Appeal

“Competition, competition, competition — that’s the biggest thing for us,” said University of Memphis offensive line coach Ryan Silverfield. “We have good size in the offensive line room already, right now. We have a very talented offensive line group already. But we were able to bring in size that we may not necessarily have at every position, or in every class.” Mark Weber/The Commercial Appeal

You can see it looming large over the university’s Park Avenue campus these days, a new $8.8-million crown jewel attached to the Billy J. Murphy Athletic Complex.

It’s long overdue, of course, because so many other schools in the American Athletic Conference already have one.

But right now, in the midst of a pandemic that caused so much havoc to the plans we all had the past few months and the plans we had for the months to come, it’s also become a giant tribute to what can be accomplished with a little perseverance.

“The timing is perfect with our guys starting to come back,” Silverfield said. “What a way for them to come back from such a strange time.”

So yes, whenever this college football season gets under way, whenever the Memphis football team returns to campus — and that could start as soon as June 1 — the Tigers will have a new toy to play in. It’s one they’ve wanted, needed and earned.

The first glimpse of the nearly finished interior of this indoor practice facility emerged a couple weeks ago via university president David Rudd’s Twitter account.

There you can see the green turf laid down with horizontal lines. The two end zones are already emblazoned with “Memphis Tigers” and “Memphis” with black and blue Tiger stripes, just like at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

The interior walls were a glistening white with multiple garage doors to get in and out to the other outdoor practice fields. The exterior is gray and the roof bright and visible from near and far.

For anyone who’s been part of this process, or who watched all the setbacks that derailed this process, the sight is no doubt inspiring. Much like the inspiration derived from last year’s Cotton Bowl run.

It feels like a culmination or sorts, or at least a reminder, that this football program that was once considered among the worst in the country is now a program to be reckoned with.

This building was a fantasy when the millennium began, a luxury die-hard Memphis football fans wondered about but figured couldn’t happen at a “basketball school.” Then around 2010, during those moribund Larry Porter years, the initial fundraising push began. And it began slowly given how poorly those Tigers performed on the field.

Only when Justin Fuente came in 2012, and only once Fuente turned the program around a couple years later, did momentum begin to build. Then in 2017, with Mike Norvell in the midst of raising Memphis football to a level this city had never seen, the university finally broke ground.

It felt, in that moment, like the dream was about to be realized. It took three more years.

It took the persistence and resourcefulness of Rudd, former athletic director Tom Bowen and the school’s relatively new Board of Trustees, which held its first meeting in March 2017.

The new Memphis football indoor practice facility, which is nearly complete, cost $8.8 million and spans 74,000-square feet.(Photo: Trey Clark/University of Memphis)

What was at first approved by the State Building Commission to be a $19 million project became the $10.6 million project it is today.

The university also had to take on $10 million in debt in the form of bonds from the Tennessee State School Bond Authority to move forward with construction on Phase I, which included new offices and training room areas that the program moved into last summer.

The loan helped offset the fact that much of the fundraising came via scheduled donations that would be paid out over time, not in the moment when construction costs needed to be covered.

The timeline for completion got sped up further when the university began managing future construction projects through the Board of Trustees and the State Building Commission, rather than through the Tennessee Board of Regents. Construction on the actual indoor practice facility then began last summer.

If it sounds like a lot of logistical and financial hoops to jump through, well it was. They are the sort of challenges schools outside a Power Five conference must overcome when tens of millions of dollars in media rights money aren't pouring in on an annual basis.

But as Memphis football embarked on its historic 2019 season, each passing week and month brought more progress on the facility this program had been sorely lacking. The progress didn’t stop even as much of the world did because of the coronavirus pandemic.

So now we can imagine what Silverfield and the Tigers can accomplish on a more level playing field with UCF, Houston, SMU and Cincinnati. We can savor what happens when this university, this athletic department and this community join together to accomplish a common goal.

We can look at those walls and that roof and that green turf, and it sure makes this longer-than-expected journey seem worth it.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto